There are situations particularly in multi-player games where the participants are required to take certain actions in the course of the game. The game generally referred to as “bingo” is an example of a game in which participants may be required to take some action in order to complete a game that has been initiated. Bingo is played with predetermined bingo cards that include a number of designations randomly arranged in a grid or other layout of spots or locations. The bingo cards may be physically printed on paper or another suitable material, or may be represented by a data structure that defines the various card locations and designations associated with the locations. In the traditional bingo game sequence, a number of the predetermined bingo cards are first put in play for a particular game and then designations are randomly selected from a pool of available designations and matched to the designations on each bingo card that is in play in the game. This matching of bingo designations randomly selected for a game and bingo designations associated with a card in play in the game is commonly referred to as daubing the card and results in a pattern or arrangement of matched spots or card locations. The player first achieving a particular game ending pattern of matched card locations and then taking some action to announce or claim the win is considered the winner of the bingo game. Generally, bingo designations continue to be randomly selected and announced to players until one of the players achieves the game ending pattern and then takes the required action to claim the prize. That is, the game can only end if one of the participants takes the required action or actions to claim the win. Even players that do not achieve the game ending pattern in the bingo game may be required to take some action either to claim a consolation prize or for some other reason.
The requirement that a player take some affirmative action in order to complete the game can pose problems particularly in electronic implementations of bingo games which are intended to facilitate rapid play. If a player in a bingo game fails to take the required action in order to claim the win for the game ending pattern or is slow to take the required action, the game continues on longer than necessary. Thus, all the players in the game must wait longer than necessary to obtain the results of their participation in the game. This delay in obtaining results can cause dissatisfaction with the game and prompt players to move on to other, competing games or gaming systems.